It's a shard life - the perils of Paris a La Boheme

Norwich was transported back to 1830s 'Garret Paris' last night in Ellen Kent's latest touring production of Puccini's La Boheme.

Set against a classical amphitheatre backdrop, the opera follows the love lives of Rodolfo - a penniless poet - and Marcello - a struggling artist, who eke out their creative crust in a Montparnasse studio along with friends Colline - a philosopher - and Schaunard - a composer. As Rodolfo falls for neighbour Mimi - a sickly seamstress who drops by to borrow a light - so Marcello rekindles old flame Musetta - now mistress of rich diplomat Alcindoro.

The Eastern European soloists gave bravura performances, especially Ruslan Zinevych as Rodolfo. His diminutive stature (he still fell a matchbox short of Mimi despite stonking 2.5" cuban heels) belied a tremendous, warm, emotional voice which captivated the audience. Also noteworthy were the sonorous Petru Racovita as Marcello and Maria Tsonina as Musetta. Tsonina's wholehearted physical acting, which included table dancing, chair-toppling and plate smashing (shards of which flew down over the edge of the stage into a very startled string section of the orchestra - perhaps payback for a slightly off-key harp performance during Act I...) was a perfect balance for Mimi's poignant, more sombre scenes.

Taken from the stories of Henri Murger, Puccini's characters are based on real-life inhabitants of the Latin Quarter: Rodolfo on Murger himself, Musetta on Mariette, a popular artist's model (whom Murger described as having 'a neat figure, plenty of coquettishness, a dash of ambition and hardly any education') and Mimi on a young, pale, sickly girl called Lucile. While Murger's Mimi was a small, delicate-yet-mercenary 22 year old, whose blue eyes contained 'an expression of almost savage brutality,' Puccini's Mimi is - rather - a tragically doomed, saintly beauty.

The audience - which gradually succumbed to Mimi's contagious, consumptive cough - were also gripped by this production, enriched by smoke effects, snow and fire.

To see venues and book tickets for this touring production, click on the link below:

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